The Points Mom

A 3 Night Stay At THE FOUR SEASONS! In Vancouver For 2/3 Free And A savings of $1,200

 

Since I recently used most of my Starpoints for Hawaii for this coming December, and now Whistler, I did not have enough to book a Starwood hotel in Vancouver.  Could I have raised the Starwood points?  Yes, I could have transferred American Express Membership Rewards points into my Starwood account.  (Starwood is a transfer partner and don’t forget, we have A LOT of Amex points because Rob’s firm advertises).  However,  I opted not to make this transfer.  You see the transfer rate from Membership Rewards to Starwood is awful.  For every 1,000 Membership Rewards, you get 333 Starpopint or a 1 to 3 ratio.  Remember, for this same trip, I transferred Membership Rewards points to Air Canada Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio, such a better deal!

Next, I proceeded to look into staying at a Marriott, Hyatt or Hilton using points.  In my search, I found that there was little availability, or the redemptions were just too high and not worth the points.

I decided for the first time to try to use Chase Ultimate Rewards points to book a hotel.  I have used Chase points in the past to book flights, (like to Telluride), but I had never used them to book a hotel.

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Learn More About Chase Ultimate Rewards Here

There were many hotels available on the Chase Ultimate Rewards website, but again, high point requirements per night.  Until I came across the FOUR SEASONS!  for 18,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per night!  Huh?  Was I seeing this right?  The only time I ever stayed at a Four Seasons was in Hawaii on my honeymoon! (which BTW we flew to for free on Delta points).  I grabbed the room for 3 nights.  The room looked really small.  I started getting nervous and grabbed another room.  (Family of 5!!).  I did not have enough Chase points for both rooms for 3 nights so I had to add about $600 to pay for the 2 rooms for the 3 nights.  The rooms would have cost about 300 per night or 900 per room, for a total of $1,800.  I had to spend $600.  I saved about $1,200 and we ARE STAYING AT THE FOUR SEASONS!!!!!!!!